Reimagined Ebola Treatment Units

ResilientAfrica Network and Makerere University School of Public Health

This redesigned Ebola treatment tent aims to substantially improve working conditions for health care workers through its ergonomic design, which allows for a significant increase in airflow and decrease in ambient temperatures. A team of students and faculty led by Makerere University College of Health Sciences, School of Public Health (MakSPH), teamed up with those from the College of Engineering, Design Art and Technology (CEDAT) to design the next generation tent for humanitarian interventions. The redesigned tent keeps the favorable features of current designs (simplicity, cheapness and structural safety) while re-imagining mechanisms for heat and air exchange within through integration of a convectional currents design and porous walls. The change in ambient environment will have three major advantages over the current designs: improved patient management by reducing the challenges faced by healthcare workers wearing heavy PPE materials; improved comfort for the patients; and amenability to ‘plug-in’ accessories to support human-led service delivery, or “portable hospitals.”